Invented by Yuri Gleba, Victor Klimyuk, BASF Agricultural Solutions Seed US LLC

In recent years, the field of genetic engineering has seen a significant advancement in the ability to encode information into nucleic acids in genetically engineered animals. This technology has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for researchers and scientists, allowing them to manipulate and control the genetic makeup of animals in ways that were previously unimaginable. The market for this technology is rapidly growing, with a wide range of applications in fields such as medicine, agriculture, and biotechnology. One of the most promising applications of this technology is in the field of medicine, where it is being used to develop new treatments for a wide range of diseases. One of the key advantages of this technology is its ability to target specific cells and tissues within the body. By encoding information into the DNA of genetically engineered animals, researchers can create animals that produce specific proteins or other molecules that can be used to treat a wide range of diseases. Another advantage of this technology is its ability to create animals that are resistant to certain diseases or conditions. For example, researchers have been able to create animals that are resistant to certain types of cancer, or that are more resistant to certain types of infections. The market for this technology is expected to continue to grow in the coming years, as researchers and scientists continue to develop new applications for it. In addition to its use in medicine, this technology is also being used in agriculture to create animals that are more resistant to disease and that produce higher yields of meat, milk, or other products. Overall, the market for method for encoding information into nucleic acids in genetically engineered animals is a rapidly growing and highly promising field. As researchers continue to develop new applications for this technology, it is likely that we will see even more exciting developments in the years to come.

The BASF Agricultural Solutions Seed US LLC invention works as follows

The present invention relates to a method for creating a genetically engineered transgenic animal. This involves (a) incorporating a functional DNA sequencing that confers a trait into an organism and (b), incorporating a nonfunctional DNA series into the organism. The non-functional sequence encodes information using a predefined code scheme. The predefined coding schema can be used to map multiple information messages into non-functional sequences. Additionally, both the functional and non-functional sequences are integrated into one chromosome.

Background for Method for encoding information into nucleic acids in a genetically engineered animal

Genetic engineering is a technical process. As such, it is subject to certain rules and regulations. These are intended to provide the right technical, ecological, and economic environments for both the process and the products that result. These rules have been established in other areas of technology. They are designed to ensure quality and reproducibility, as well to protect consumers, producers, the environment, and the public. GM organisms, which are unique products that are created by humans, are self-replicating. Transgenic material can persist for very long periods of time if it is released into the environment. Scientists are often accused of being too fascinated by scientific discoveries and recklessly putting public health and the environment at risk by advocating for early release of genetically modified organisms (GM) plants. There has been a total of 3.5 trillion transgenic plants grown in America since 1994. No evidence of adverse effects has been found. But, good technology practices are still important. The technology used to create transgenic organisms and genetic manipulations is still in its infancy. Further research should be done. Proper technical information data is an important element in more advanced biotechnological procedures, such as labeling and registration.

Several groups advocated for food products containing GM organisms to be labeled. The European Union’s recent decision to end the moratorium on transgenic plant production is a positive step in the right direction (Schiermeier Q. 2001, Nature, 409, 967-968). The states that are de facto behind this moratorium demanded additional rules regarding the traceability and labeling of GM foods.

Labelling objects, including liquid and solid material, valuable objects, etc. A number of patents/patents have disclosed the use of nucleic acid fragments to label objects (see EP408-424, WO9117265, WO9404918 and WO9416902). Two patent applications (WO9617954 and WO0059917) describe, in addition to living objects, the use DNA/biopolymers for labelling live objects. These publications don’t teach secure labeling for transgenic organisms. Transgenic animals and plants were specifically genetically engineered to distinguish the technical and functional (informational) parts of the DNA insert on the host chromosome. Prior art labelling methods do not address the problems of label loss during multiple GMO reproductions or the possibility of label corruption.

It is therefore a problem for this invention to provide methods that allow an unambiguous, secure genetic labelling GMOs.

It is another problem with the invention to provide methods that allow the tracing transgenes or GM organisms released in the environment and products derived from them.

These objects can be achieved through a process of creating a genetically engineered animal, which includes

Further the mapping of a DNA sequence into an information message is preferably singular while the mapping between an information message and a DNA sequencing is preferably nonunique to allow for flexibility and adjustment to the DNA sequence.

Further,” said coding scheme should be redundant and/or allow for the detection and correction errors in order to ensure that the encoded information is stable for a practical time.

Moreover, said functional and non-functional DNA sequences should be kept linked during reproduction for a practical period.

The invention also describes a method for genetic labeling and tracing the transgenes of interest by adding next and linking to it, a specialized sequence of DNA which performs only a labeling function and does not have any other functionality.

The invention also describes a method for genetic labeling that does no adversely affect fitness or performance of the transgenic organism. The non-functional DNA sequence label (the invention) is genetically stable, stably linked with the transgene and poses no ecological risk.

This invention also provides a transgenic organism that can be obtained or obtainable by this method.

To our best knowledge, the transgenic organisms described herein are the first to be genetically labeled. This is done by incorporating a DNA sequence that has no other function in an organism than providing technical information about transgenic material.

Further vectors are provided for incorporating DNA in an organism using this method.

A method is provided for analysing a genetically engineered animal produced according to the invention. It comprises at least one of these steps:

The invention method allows at least two DNA sequences to be introduced into an organism. A functional and non-functional.

The functional DNA sequence includes a gene or fragment of interest, e.g. For conferring an organism with a useful trait. Functionality of the functional sequence is essentially the reason why genetically engineering the organism was done.

The non-functional sequence of DNA is not necessary for the functioning of an organism or the functioning of a functional sequence of DNA. However, it might overlap with the functional sequence in part. In that it includes information about the functional sequence, the information message is related the the functional DNA sequence. The information message may contain information about the functional sequence. It could include a date and a place as well as a producer’s name and serial number. A reference to a database or a entry in a database containing additional information about the functional sequence or trademark. The non-functional sequence serves an important purpose. It allows a GMO that is found in the environment, or on the market place, to be traced back at the producer, date and release location etc.

The predefined code scheme allows for the mapping of a variety of information messages to a number of DNA sequences. The predefined coding scheme can be used to map each information message into a DNA sequence. The coding scheme can allow for unique or non-unique mapping. It is preferable that the mapping between a DNA sequence and an information message is unique, while the mapping between an information message and a DNA sequence can be non-unique. This mapping can be defined as any binary relation between the allowable set of information messages and the set of plurality or multiple DNA sequences, or (a subset) thereof.

There are many possible coding strategies that could be used to implement this invention. One possibility is that the coding scheme can be defined by a codebook that associates every possible information message (e.g. A company name is associated with one or more of the corresponding DNA sequences. This code book can have an inherent structure or not. A predefined coding scheme is used in other embodiments. This specifies how many possible information messages will be mapped into the corresponding DNA sequences. It can also be used to replace a predefined codebook. Each individual information message has its own predefined mapping. The number of information messages that can encoded is preferred to be large. It may be greater than 10, 1 000, or 100 000 in certain embodiments.

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